


Pokémon Card... Red?

by fallenpetals



Category: Pocket Monsters Card GB | Pokemon TCG for GB, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Red & Green & Blue & Yellow | Pokemon Red Green Blue Yellow Versions
Genre: Gen, Namelessshipping, UniverseSwap, if no one will give card gb love then i will, the legendary cards are buck wild man
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21635362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallenpetals/pseuds/fallenpetals
Summary: In one universe, the newly crowned champion of the Pokémon Trading Card Game walks up to a Legendary Deck Machine.In another, the newly crowned champion of the Kanto Pokémon League walks up to register his Pokémon Team into the Hall of Fame.In both, a rival looks on, grimacing.None of them would be prepared for what happened next.An explosion. Laughter in the distance. Blacking out.------------------------------in which two protagonist-rival pairs find themselves in the wrong universe and the rivals quickly succumb to the enthusiasm of their protagonists
Relationships: Ookido Green | Blue Oak/Red, Park | Mark/Lando | Ronald
Kudos: 22





	Pokémon Card... Red?

Red woke up outside of a building he didn’t recognise. His head hurt, and he didn’t know where any of his Pokéballs went. Shrugging it off, he glanced up at the sign that stood before him.

_Pokémon… Dome?_

“Hey, kid!” Someone called out for him, “You headed for the Mason Laboratory?”  
Red looked at the stranger quizzically.  
“Come on, I see those cards in yer hand. Fixin’ ta inherit the legendary cards from the Grand Masters, ain’tcha?”

Red blinked. Sure enough, he was carrying a bunch of cards. Were those Pokéballs on the back of each card?

_What’s going on?_

“Somethin’ tells me ya got lost. Here, I’ll take ya ta the lab. I’m sure Dr. Mason can help ya out.”

Before Red could protest, he was swept away towards a giant laboratory and dropped off in front of its big, intimidating door.

\----------------------------------------------------------

After collecting his bearings, Red took a deep breath.

_Maybe this ‘Dr. Mason’ knows what's going on?_

With newfound vigor, Red walked inside.  
He assumed the Doctor was the old guy in a lab coat, luckily Red didn’t need to start the conversation.

“Oh! Why the rush, Red?”

_How did he know my name?_

“What? You want to learn how to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game?”

_I never said any.. Pokémon Card Game?_

Red remembered the mysterious cards he had found in his pocket.

“So you, too, finally want to start playing the card game. Well, dueling is more fun than collecting cards…”

As the man continued on, Red found himself enamoured with this ‘Card Game.’ It sounded somewhat similar to battles, albeit a bit more complex. 

Red couldn’t wait to try it out for himself.

Dr. Mason called over someone named Sam. Soon enough, thanks to a practice deck, Red was in his first duel.

Following the Doctor’s instructions, Red found himself having fun! 

“Basically,” Dr Mason started once Red won the duel. “This is how the Pokémon Trading Card Game is played.”

_So cool…_

“It doesn’t look like you’re a talker, so feel free to write any questions you have on this notepad and give it to Sam.” Dr. Mason shifted around his pockets, before pulling out an empty notepad that had pokéballs all over it. 

Red nodded and accepted the notepad gleefully.

Dr. Mason walked away from the table, and Red followed him. “Now then, let’s build your deck. Did you bring your cards?”

Red was confused for a second, but then remembered the cards in his pocket once again. He pulled them out and handed them to the doctor.

“Let me add some of my own cards to yours! Now, Red, what kind of deck do you want?”

Red was presented with three options for his deck: Charmander & Friends, Squirtle & Friends, and Bulbasaur & Friends.

His mind went back to when he got his starter from Professor Oak back in his own universe, and he smiled while pointing to the Bulbasaur & Friends deck.

Bulbasaur was his first Pokémon after all, it would make sense for him to choose it again.

Even if this time Bulbasaur wasn’t real and it was just a deck of cards.

“Ok, here are the remaining cards.” After shuffling through his pockets again, Dr. Mason handed Red a complete Bulbasaur & Friends deck. ”You should duel with many different people. Why don’t you go to one of the card clubs?” He handed Red a map of the island. “There are lots of trainers at the clubs, collect many cards from them and make a whole new deck!”

With a grin, Red gave a nod of affirmation and turned around to leave the lab.

Sure, he’s basically in a different universe. And all his Pokémon are gone. And he doesn’t know how to get back home.

But he might as well have some fun while trying to figure things out, shouldn’t he?

\----------------------------------------------------------

Red decided to try out the Lightning Club first, since it was the closest to the Lab.

“Well, those people didn’t know anything. I wonder who the ‘Grand Masters’ everyone talks about are...”

Red recognised that voice!

“BLUE!” Red exclaimed, talking for the first time since arriving in this strange world.

Blue was taken aback by someone suddenly calling his name, but relief washed over his features once he realised who it was.

“It’s you, Red! You were sent here too? Have you found out why?”

Red shook his head, which made Blue sigh.

“Figures.”

Red smiled, pulling out his deck and showing it to Blue.

“What? Are those cards? I woke up with cards too… Some people tried to get me to duel with them using cards, but I don’t really understand how any of this works. And I don’t really want to find out.”

Red pouted.

“Don’t give me that face. All our Pokémon are gone and we don’t know any of the people on this dumb island.”  
“The cards look cool, though.”  
“I don’t care about the cards! We don’t belong here, Red!”  
Red just frowned at him, scribbling on the notepad Dr. Mason had lent him, before showing Blue what he had written.

“....You think the Grand Masters might know something?”  
Red nodded.  
“And… the only way to meet them is to collect the Master Medals from the different clubs, which we can get by playing this silly card game.” Blue groaned. “I don’t even know how to play it.”

Red chuckled at his rival, scribbling some more on the notepad before ripping the page off and handing it to him. Red waved to the other, pushing past him to go further into the club.

“Mason Laboratory, eh?” Blue’s eyes scanned over the paper in his hands. “Red, I don’t even know where that-” He looked around for Red, but was disappointed to find he was already out of sight. “Damnit!”

“Uhm, not that I was eavesdropping or anything, but...” The clerk that he forgot was there spoke up. “If you’re looking for the Mason Laboratory, It’s not too far. Go down the path outside the door and take a right at the first intersection.”

“Thanks, I guess.” Blue grumbled, walking out the door to make his way to this ‘Mason Laboratory.’

\----------------------------------------------------------

Red easily defeated all the Lightning Club Members, and received Issac’s Master Medal with the same ease.

He left the club and kept going, finding himself at the Rock Club.

He had a little trouble with this club, but managed to get his second Master Medal from Gene in the end.

Red walked back out to the front room, flipping through his cards and rearranging his deck.

“Hey Red, What’s up?” Blue came walking up to Red from the duel hall. “You seem happy about something.”

Red showed him both of his Master Medals with a huge sense of pride. 

“Tch, you only have more than me because you started earlier.” Blue showed him his own Master Medal, one from the Science Club. Red smirked at him, knowingly. “Hey! Shut up, it’s not like I like card dueling or whatever, I’m only doing this to meet the Grand Masters!”

Red snorted. This was his second time going on a journey with Blue as his rival, and he had him figured out by that point.

‘It’s like battling. You love battling.’ Red wrote on his notepad.

“My top focus is getting out of here and back to our own universe, thank you.” Blue rolled his eyes, albeit blushing slightly at how easily Red had figured him out.

Red glanced over at the clerk, before looking back at Blue and whispering: “Do you want to have a duel with me?”

Blue smirked, readying his cards. “Have I ever said no to a challenge from you, Red?”

\----------------------------------------------------------

Once Red earned his third Master Medal, he decided to take a short break from it all. Just a short one.  
He looked on his map and found a building called ‘Challenge Hall’.  
Needless to say, he was intrigued.

He walked up to the clerk, who explained a little about the Challenge Cup. It was a TCG competition of sorts.  
Red was excited by competition.  
He walked into the duel hall and was surprised to see Blue, who immediately came up to him.

“Yo, Red. Are you competing too?” Blue seemed much less stressed out than their previous two encounters.

Red pulled out his notepad: ‘It sounds like fun!’

“Not to be overconfident,” Blue started, “But I’ve gotten the hang of this dueling thing, so I think I have a pretty good chance of winning this competition.”

Red snickered, writing his response: ‘I’m going to win this time.’

“Well see about that, Red.”

And even though Red ended up losing the duel against Blue in the Challenge Cup, he couldn’t stop smiling when he left the building.

Red had finally gotten Blue to relax, and ‘Relaxed’ Blue was much better than ‘Stressed Out’ Blue.

\----------------------------------------------------------

Red sped through more clubs, earning more Medals along the way. There was something familiar about this, however the different circumstance may have been.

He had just gotten his fifth Medal, and he found Blue as he was leaving yet again.

“Hey, Red!” Blue called out as he walked from the duel hall. “I’m still trying to find out how to get out of here, did you find anything?”

Red shook his head, before pulling out his deck.

“Alright, fine.” Blue rolled his eyes, getting his own cards out. “I’ll duel you again. Want to go for 6 prizes?”

\----------------------------------------------------------

Another ‘Challenge Cup’, another chance meeting with Blue.

Not that Red minded seeing Blue every so often. Despite his enthusiasm for this new world, Red had to admit he was happy to have someone so familiar to him in the same predicament.

“Hey, Red,” Blue walked up, flipping through his cards. “We meet again.”

Red simply waved at his rival.

“I’ll win this Challenge Cup too, just watch me!”

With fire in their eyes, both of them raced towards the room where the tournament took place.

This time, Red won himself the promotional card.

\----------------------------------------------------------

After earning 8 Master Medals, participating in 3 Challenge Cups, and a strange encounter with a man named ‘Imakuni?’, Red was finally accepted into the Great Hall at the Pokémon Dome.

“Welcome to the Pokémon Dome!” A man spoke as Red walked in. “I am Rod, leader of the Grand Masters…”

Rod introduced the rest of the Grand Masters to Red. Red sat in awe, completely forgetting the reason he started this journey.

Almost as quickly as they had been introduced, Red found himself taking on the Grand Masters one by one.

“You have proven yourself worthy enough to inherit the legendary Pokémon cards!!!” Rod exclaimed once he has been beaten. 

Red grinned proudly. 

“Except…” 

_Except…?_

“We have a problem… There is another who has defeated us… you must duel him…”

Suddenly, the huge doors beyond the duel stage opened, and in walked… Blue!

“Took you long enough, Red.” Blue smirked, showing off the cards he had recently earned. “I have already inherited the Legendary Pokémon Cards!”

There was something very familiar about this situation.

Red beating the four masters. Finding out Blue did it first and became the champion…. Red knew what would happen next, and frankly he was excited.

“Rod said that there had been malfunctions with the Legendary Deck Machine, and I think that has something to do with why we got stuck here.” Blue explained, pointing to an unopened door at the edge of the hall. “It feels like there’s something about these cards that can help us, but I wanted to wait so we can check it out together.”

Red grinned at him.

“Red! Don’t give me that look! I just thought since we were together at the Hall of Fame Machine when the explosion happened, it would make sense for us to be together for this!”

Red looked at their decks, continuing to grin.

Blue blinked. “You want to have one last duel, don’t you?”

Red nodded enthusiastically, placing his deck on the table.

“We’re so close to getting back home...” Blue thought on it, but when he looked back into Reds eyes… he couldn’t say no. “But I guess it can wait just a bit longer.” Blue closed his eyes and sighed, before looking at his longtime rival with a grin of his own. 

“Okay then,” Rod took his place as referee. “Let’s begin this ultimate duel!”

“I’m going to beat you, Red!” 

_I’m ready, Blue!_

Red handed Blue his cards to shuffle, and the match soon began.

\----------------------------------------------------------

“NO!!! How...? How could I lose!?!” Blue exclaimed, obviously distraught. This made Red snicker, and Blue glared at him.  
“I'm sorry, but the Legendary Pokémon Cards have chosen Red.” Rod explained as the aforementioned cards disappeared from Blue’s deck.

“Where did they….”  
“Back to the Hall of Honour.” Rod turned towards Red with a smile. “Congratulations, Red! You are a card master worthy of inheriting the legendary Pokémon cards! Go forth into the Hall of Honour and retrieve the legendary cards!”

Red looked at Blue as if asking for permission.

“Tell me if they say anything that can help us go back.” Blue shrugged.  
Red looked at him confused.

_They’re just cards…. can they really talk?_

Red nodded despite not completely understanding what Blue meant, before slowly making his way inside the Hall of Honour.

Red found the legendary cards floating in the middle of the room, and cautiously walked up to them.

Just as Blue had implied, the cards started to speak!

"You who have inherited us... great card master!”  
Red was taken aback by the sudden voice. No... **Voices.**

The cards talked to him about how he had truly become a Pokémon Card Master. Not just due to his skill, but because he had the ability to love the game no matter if he won or lost.

They didn’t stop there, though.

“You have granted our wish of finding a truly worthy card game player to inherit us, and we are prepared to grant the wish you seek.”

_My wish…?_

“You wish to make him happy, and you believe helping him go back to the correct universe will achieve that.”

_Blue..._

“When you both are ready to go back home, walk towards the Legendary Deck Machine.”

_Do I have to go back now?_

As if they could read his mind, the cards answered him: “Take as much time as you need.” The cards sounded as if they were smiling, however they couldn’t actually do that considering they’re cards.

Red beamed, turning around to walk out of the Hall of Honour.

Grand Masters Steve and Jack were sitting at the dueling table, dueling each other as a form of practice. Rod and Courtney we’re sitting off to the side, chatting.

Red walked down the steps and looked around, but Blue wasn’t in the room anymore. He looked over at Rod and Courtney, quizzically.

“Hm-hmm, we had to send your boyfriend on his way.” Courtney waved.

_B...Boyfriend?!?_

Red’s face immediately became a bright shade of crimson at the suggestion, crossing his arms in front of himself to form an ‘x’.

“Oh, he’s not your boyfriend?” Courtney honestly seemed shocked. “You two seem so close, my mistake then~”

Rod chuckled at her comments. “He should be waiting outside for you.” 

Red nodded, walking towards the grand door whilst still being a bit flustered by Courtneys assumption.

\----------------------------------------------------------

“Took you long enough,” Blue started once he heard the door open. “Did the cards say anything about-” He noticed that Red was using his hat to cover his face, and that what part of his face that he could see was a slight pink. “Are you okay? Your face is, well, red. It’s living up to your name, hah.”

Red opened his mouth to speak, but opted for the notebook instead.

‘Don’t worry about it.’

Blue raised an eyebrow, but quickly shrugged it off. “Did the cards say anything?”

Red thought for a moment, before scribbling on his notepad once again.

“They did? That’s great!” Blue looked at Red, who had calmed down from his prior embarrassment. “...But you want to stay, don’t you?”

“Just a little bit longer!” Red managed to say, which caused Blue to roll his eyes.

“I wonder if there’s another Challenge Cup going on. Those are fun.” Blue smirked.

Reds eyes lit up, and he raced out of the building.

Blue just shook his head, laughing a bit to himself.

“I’ll never get tired of this nerd.”

\----------------------------------------------------------

After another Challenge Cup, a few more strange encounters with ‘Imakuni?’, and a second run through with the Grand Masters, Red found himself in the Hall of Honour once again.

This time however, he wasn’t alone.

“You ready to go home, Red?”

“Mhm.”

Holding hands, the duo walked up to the Legendary Deck Machine.

Upon booting it up, the Legendary Cards floated up out of Red’s deck, and the atmosphere grew heavy.

Suddenly, everything went white.

\----------------------------------------------------------

Red woke up in his own bed, in his own room, in his own universe.

He had a headache again, although it wasn’t as bad as before.

Getting up, he walked over to the end of his bed, where he always left his hat.

_...Was it a dream?_

He put his hat on, not noticing there was something inside.

Red went down stairs. He greeted his mother like always, who said something about going to Professor Oak's lab.

But Reds mind was too preoccupied to pay much attention.

He ran to the front door, and once he opened it…

There stood Blue, somewhat out of breath.

“Red, I went to see Gramps and he was telling me the same thing he did on the day we started our Pokémon journey. I think everything started over when we-”

Suddenly, he stopped talking.

“Something’s poking out of your hat..?”

Red blinked, before taking his hat off to inspect it.

“...A Pokémon card? But those don’t exist in our universe.”

Red shrugged, putting his hat back on and stuffing the card in his pocket.

“Anyway, back to what I was saying…”  
Blue’s confused look quickly turned to a smirk.

“You ready for another round, Red?”


End file.
